Discus On A Death Bed

[kribensis12]

Hi! I have a babie discus about 3 and a half by 3 and a half inches long and it has some fin and tail rot and a very bad eye infection. I am treating the eye infection with this stuff called Furan-2 and it had yet to get rid of the infection and I am treating the fin and tail rot with anti-fungus plus. And at least that medicine is working. It has not eaten for almost a week and a half and has some issues swimming because of the eye infection. The water has a ph of 7.0 and the nitrates are very low. If it matters the discus is called a royal pigeon blood. Should I give this thing another week or not? Please help.

 

[Tolak]

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[kev_kb]

Not going to be much help here, but I can say that most of the time finrot is a secondary illness caused by stress from something else, and unless the fish has no fins left it will rarely kill it on it's own. I would concentrate on sorting the eye firstly. If you have used the two treatments together are you sure it was safe to?

 

[DiscusAngel]

I had the same thing with one of my discus. it did not have a eye infection but it had fin rot and couldnt swim properly i put him in a tank on his own and he didnt like it he se4emed to get worse! so i put him back in with his mates and he livened up i got some Protozyn which you use regulary and it made him ebtter"

 

[kribensis12]

Tank Size: 20 gallon flat hexagon
ph:7.0
Ammonia: Petstore said it was perfect for discus( I think that means there is no ammonia)
Nitrite: None
Nitrate: None
Kh: dont know
Gh: dont know
Tank temp: 85 degrees

Fish Symtoms: One eye has a big white thing on it and the eye appears hazy( cloudy). The fish is completely white except for a redish band that looks like some type of design and the fins look like the band. It stays at the top of the tank and usually by the heater or filter.

I take out 25% every 3 days.

I put in Completely Nuetral, Furan-2, and anti-fungus plus.

One baby plec and 7 one week old cons for when he.she eats again.

No exposure to chemicals

I dont know how to post digitals.

 

[kev_kb]

Was the fish white before?

Please tell me you don't keep the Discus in this tank normally??? If you do you really need to research the fish you buy!

If the fish is there for treatment it should be on its own, unless the pleco is also having problems?

Do you have an air pump in there? Discus do sometimes hang near the surface when the oxygen in the water is low.

There really is no need to feed the discus baby cons!

You should really know your kh and gh if your keeping Discus, how else would you know your water is suitable for them???

If you do keep it in a 20 normally then please please please do a search on this site for Discus and read every post you can find.

Forgot to mention, you could also turn up the heat a little, and add aeration if you do this.

 

[kribensis12]

I do have an air pump but I having trouble finding a outlet for it. I have the pleco in there for algea reasons and the fact that there are nat larva on the tank walls and the pleco really likes them. This is a sick tank and the other reason for the pleco is to clean up the mess of the discus when it starts to eat again. I bought it sick because I couldnt bear to watvh it die at the lfs. I am going to get an exstension cord today and I do have alot of live plants in there so I dont know how there couldnt be enough oxegen. And I do know that the warmer the water the lower the oxegen level. It is kept ina 30 gallon with kribs and swords and borellis and when it gets too big I will either sell it or get a bigger tank. I know what I am doing and I just want to know if there is hope for this baby discus.

 

[jenny6165]

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[kribensis12]

I have noticed that the pleco has pooped about a ton an hour. Would a crayfish work better? I have one in my 30g that could clean the tank up.

 

[kev_kb]

I do have an air pump but I having trouble finding a outlet for it. I have the pleco in there for algea reasons and the fact that there are nat larva on the tank walls and the pleco really likes them. This is a sick tank and the other reason for the pleco is to clean up the mess of the discus when it starts to eat again. I bought it sick because I couldnt bear to watvh it die at the lfs. I am going to get an exstension cord today and I do have alot of live plants in there so I dont know how there couldnt be enough oxegen. And I do know that the warmer the water the lower the oxegen level. It is kept ina 30 gallon with kribs and swords and borellis and when it gets too big I will either sell it or get a bigger tank. I know what I am doing and I just want to know if there is hope for this baby discus.

What do you mean by clean up the mess of the discus? Plecos do not eat fish poop. If you feed the appropriate amount there won't be any food left over for the pleco to 'clean up'. If you are struggling to control algae you need to find out why.

It's a really bad idea to buy sick fish from your LFS IMHO. All it does is encourage them to sell ill/poor quality fish.

Hope this doesn't sound rude, but if you really knew what you were doing you would know that discus should be kept in groups, 5 is a min but 4 can work some times. Plus each discus should be given about 10 gallons of water, note this doesn't mean 2 for a 20!!! So you don't have room to provide for them.

I would also question you keeping them with kribs and swords. Kribs can be very aggressive, and don't swords like really hard water?

I'm sorry I can't help with the problem your experiencing but please search this forum for discus posts and read everything you can on them.

 

[annka5]

How is your discus now?
IMO, the tank is far too small, and the discus needs to be part of a shoal, and these factors alone will be enough to cause it loads of stress. The problem with discus is that unless you can meet their requirements then they almost invariably get sick and die.
You could try rehoming the pleco, and siphoning the tank daily to keep the water super-clean. You also need to double-check that the meds you are using aren't reacting badly with each other.
Honestly, I think you really need to rehome the discus in a good sized tank, with excellent water parameters for him to stand much chance of recovering. Then you need to add more discus as soon as practical.

 

[kev_kb]

How are things going with your discus?

 

[crazie.eddie]

How long have you had the discus? How big are they?

Nitrates of zero leads me to believe the tank has not cycled properly OR inaccurate tests.

I agree about the 20 gallon hex being too small. The minum tank size for 1 pair of adult discus is typically a 29 gallon (US). They do do better in small groups, so at least 4-5 discus should be kept at a minimum of a 50 gallon tank or so.

What do you feed the discus?

When discus stay to one corner, they are normally stressed.

Is your tank BB (barebottom) or do you have substrate?

The tank where you got the discus from, was it BB or with susbtrate?

Keep up the treatment with anti bacterial meds and keep up with the WC.

The problem with rescue fish is sometimes, they are very bad condition and the stress of being caught and brought home could make it worse.

 

[kribensis12]

I checked the Nitrates this morning and they are at 15 and the nitrites are in the safe region. The waters ph is a netrual and when the discus gets better I am going to sell it at a petstore. It is now moving more and dosent stay at the top of the tank and you can see visible stress bars. It still will not eat and I do know that they do better with more than one and also I have had fish for 9 years so I know what I was doing so alls I needed to know was, does this thing have a chance? Its fin and tail rot is gone and the eye isnt as bad but it still isnt good.

 

[JamieH]

.... rescue fish... not a good idea.

there are some general points here - you bought a sick fish, then did not have the ability to give it the enivronment it needs to thrive, the net result being that the fish is no better off and you put your existing fish at risk of infection.

both fin rot and eye infections are caused by bacteria - a broad spectrum bacteria treatment like tetras general tonic may help.

However, i would be inclined to suggest that a sick discus, on it own, in a less than ideal tank, is pretty much not going to get better.


If you see a fish with a number of bacterial infections like that in future, it would make me question the ability of the shop to provide good water (which is all most fish need) and hence I wouldn;t buy anything from there... least of all something thats not well to start with

.... and the nitrites are in the safe region.

There should only be one value for nitrite in an established tank - ZERO.

if you have a nitrite reading, something is very wrong.